What makes a great picture book? How do illustrators approach the process of adapting the words into visual storytelling? Who is the audience for picture books and how has that changed over the years? What is it like to bring to life a real-life figure within the pages of a picture book? In this panel, award-winning creators, as well as up-and-coming artists, will take us behind the scenes of their work—the joys and the challenges.

Tween readers: they’re not earnest little kids anymore, but they’re not quite prickly teenagers either. How do authors craft characters and narratives that speak to this unique developmental moment in a child’s life? What are the “big topics” being explored within the pages of middle grade literature, and how are authors expanding our preconceived notions of the genre? In this panel, veteran and debut authors will open up about writing for those readers caught in the middle.

Who are the people behind SLJ? Ever wonder how starred reviews or the Best Books of the year are selected? Curious about becoming a reviewer? In this fast session, you’ll have a chance to ask our staff questions–and offer suggestions!

So much about young adulthood is figuring out who you are and how those identities can change from one day to another. So much about writing YA is tapping into that journey of actualization. These acclaimed and brand new authors bring their own experiences to creating authentic teen lit that speaks to all readers.

Wise words from the always dynamic and incisive best-selling author of Shadowshaper, Salsa Nocturna, and the “Bone Street Rumba” series.

12:50–1:15 PM | Kid Lit & YA Author Signings

1:15–1:45 PM | Registration & Coffee (Afternoon Sessions–Adult Lit)

1:45–2:45 PM | Editors’ Picks Panel

Day of Dialog’s in-demand Editors’ Picks Panel returns with a big lineup of panelists, from top editors at Algonquin: Workman, Liveright: Norton, and Ecco: HarperCollins, to movers and shakers at indie houses New Press and Akashic Books, to the editorial director at Hanover Square Press, a newly minted imprint at Harlequin. Editors will present three to four forthcoming titles each–books that you can bet will be among the most discussed in the coming year.

Granta Young Novelist and NYPL Young Lion Uzodinma Iweala‘s Speak No Evil portrays a gay Nigerian American teenager. Obama campaign blogger Sam Graham-Felsen‘s Green, a debut novel, limns the experiences of a white boy in a mostly African American school. Also debut fiction, Commonwealth Prize winner Akwaeke Emezi‘s Freshwater features a Nigerian woman in America suffering a mental health crisis. Krystal A. Sital offers a memoir, Secrets We Kept, about three generations of women in a Hindu family in Trinidad reckoning with an abusive patriarch. And Lauren Hilgers‘ Patriot Number One: American Dreams in Chinatown gives immigration a New York spin.

Would immortality really be such a blessing? How far should you go to assure the happiness of a loved one? What do you do when you’re faced with an impossible choice, for instance, following the church you love or the life you want? Good questions make for good book club books, and these are the kinds of questions posed in their new works by Granta Young Novelist/Jewish Book Award-winner Dara Horn, National Book Award-winner Alice McDermott, and ALA Book Club Central first pick Stephanie Powell Watts. With other panelists, they’ll share with you the joy of reading.